alr

Ride With the Devil

Directed by Ang Lee.
With Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jewel.
US, 1999, 35mm, color, 138 min.

A harrowingly personal look at life on the fringes of the Civil War, this revisionist Western marks Lee’s first foray into action filmmaking, while retaining the humanistic sense of family drama that marks his four previous films. Following a group of young Missouri men who become unofficial guerilla fighters in the War Between the States, Ride With the Devil tracks their dark journey into the horrors of war, as their seemingly righteous desire to defend and avenge their countrymen devolves into the nihilistic violence of the infamous Lawrence Massacre. Based on Daniel Woodrich’s novel Woe to Live On, James Schamus’ screenplay eschews schematic relationships between characters, instead presenting complex sets of alliances, antagonisms, betrayals, and affections. Coolly received or overlooked altogether upon its initial release, the film has been critically resurrected as one of Lee’s most underrated and intense pieces of cinema.

Part of film series

Read more

Ang Lee, Close Up

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Psychedelic Cinema

Read more

Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith

Read more
sepia photo of Artie Freedman in silhouette with a video camera at show

Boston Punk Rewound / Unbound. The Arthur Freedman Collection

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction: Film and Internationalism in the SFRY, 1957 – 1988

Read more

From the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection

Read more
a mausoleum that looks like a miniature Spanish cathedral, next to a variety of others, against an evening sky

The Night Watchman by Natalia Almada

Read more
a double-exposed image that includes a 16th century Russian man being fed grapes by another amid decadent decor

Wings of a Serf

Read more
a close-up of a Bissau-Guinean woman wearing a scarf on her head and looking directly at the camera with a slight smile

Le Dépays + Sans soleil

Read more
Peter Sellers wearing a large hat with "ME" embroidered on it, and gripping a Pilgrim-like collar

Carol for Another Christmas